Syracuse needs Vince Kehres to overhaul its defense quickly

Fran Brown made one of the biggest decisions of his head coaching career so far when he decided to shake up his defensive staff after a brutal season on that side of the ball. It was not an easy call considering his relationship with Elijah Robinson, who left Texas A&M to join Brown at Syracuse when he got the job two years ago.

Robinson was not the only one to go. Both of Syracuse’s co-defensive coordinators from a year ago, Robinson and Robert Wright, are now with Texas A&M and the Los Angeles Rams, respectively. New defensive coordinator Vince Kehres arrives with quite the resume. He has developed and retained stars like Quinyon Mitchell, Darius Alexander and Emmanuel McNeil-Warren in recent years as the Toledo defensive coordinator. That was after winning a pair of D-III national titles as the head coach at Mount Union.

How quickly will the new defense adapt?

A smothering defense was Toledo’s calling card with Kehres at the controls. The Rockets ranked second in yards and fourth in points allowed per game in the nation last year. Kehres’ scheme is naturally aggressive and thrives at creating chaos. It’s described as a 4-2-5 hybrid scheme.

His task is to overhaul one of the worst defenses in the ACC from a year ago. SU ranked near the bottom of just about every major statistical category in 2025. Some of that can be blamed on abysmal quarterback play consistently putting the unit in tough situations, but the issues go deeper than that.

Syracuse ranked in the bottom 15 in yards and points allowed in the country. Allowing 34.9 points per game, the most in the conference, while producing the third fewest sacks and only 11 turnovers are clear indicators of a bad defense regardless of what the offense is doing.

The cupboard is not bare

Thankfully, several key contributors, highlighted by Demetres Samuel Jr., Antoine Deslauriers and Chris Peal, Cornell Perry, Braheem Long and Davien Kerr should all step into bigger roles this season as well. As far as continuity goes in today’s college game, that is about as good as you are going to get for bringing back a secondary.

However, the defensive front is loaded with transfers. Tunmise Adeleye (UNLV), Dillan Fontus (Maryland) and Keyshawn Johnson (UT Martin) are all potential starters. How quickly can this group begin to gel? Adeleye and Johnson will be tasked with reigniting the pass-rush. Johnson in particular is coming off a monster season, racking up a program-record 13 sacks for the Skyhawks.

Will Kehres be able to unlock some more disruptive plays and give the offense some much-needed help? He should have one of the best corner duos to build around this year in Peal and Samuel. What’s more, he has a bit of an on ramp to implement his scheme. Syracuse’s schedule isn’t particularly daunting out of the gate. When they start facing the ACC’s top offenses in October and November, the defense better have some answers.

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